Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life
Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life ''(also known simply as ''Dork Diaries) is the 1st book in the Dork Diaries series. It was released on June 2, 2009. The original Dork Diaries published in 2005, making people think Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a ripoff but Diary of a Wimpy kid was made in 1998 as artwork began and released 2004 on Funbrain. This first Dork Diaries book has two main forms: the original, and the "Super Squee Edition". Summary 14-year-old Nikki Maxwell is not happy when her father arranges a scholarship for her to attend a private middle school called Westchester Country Day as part of the contract for his bug extermination services. Nikki does not fit in with the wealthy, designer clad students and spends most of her time alone writing in her diary. To make matters worse, she has a locker right next to the school's most popular girl, MacKenzie Hollister. MacKenzie labels Nikki as a “Dork” and goes out of her way to make Nikki’s life miserable. It appears the new school may work out when Nikki befriends two other dorky girls, Chloe and Zoey. But, things take a turn for the worse when Nikki enters the school art show and discovers her main competition is her enemy, MacKenzie, who will stop at nothing to win. Synopsis Saturday, August 31 14-year-old Nikki Maxwell is not happy when her mother buys her something other than a new cell phone. Nikki had always wanted a cell phone to fit in with the other students since she was the only without one. Instead, her mother got her a diary. Nikki decides not to write in it. Monday, September 2 Nikki decides to try writing in her diary and explains that the only reason she's attending her new school, Westchester Country Day is because she's there on a scholarship due to her dad being the school's exterminator, much to her embarrassment. Tuesday, September 3 Nikki is doing her homework late at night when she hears a knock at her bedroom room and assumes it's her little sister, Brianna needing to go to the bathroom and wanting Nikki to take her in fear of the tooth fairy. But it's actually her parents, giving her a talk about her conditions at school. Wednesday, September 4 Nikki has her locker right next to the most CCP (Cute, Cool and Popular) girl at WCD, MacKenzie Hollister. Everyone loves MacKenzie. Nikki has trouble being her locker neighbor and wishes she would stop picking on her. Thursday, September 5 MacKenzie constantly berates Nikki for not being fashionably inclined like her, which really hurts and scares Nikki. Friday, September 6 Nikki believes that the reason she doesn't fit in at WCD is because, according to MacKenzie, her wardrobe is terrible. Nikki considers trying new clothes only to find she does not look good in it like someone like MacKenzie does. Saturday, September 7 Nikki feels insecure about how she dresses and the places she shops for clothes thanks to MacKenzie's criticism. Sunday, September 8 Still feeling insecure, Nikki thinks about moving back to the city to live with her grandma and attend her old school. Her grandma practices studying prices for items on The Price Is Right and takes a hip hop dance class. Monday, September 9 The school is having its annual art show, and 1st prize is $750 in cash. Nikki intends to sign up for the art show until she sees MacKenzie entering. Instead, she unintentionally signs up to be a Library Shelving Assistant (LSA). Tuesday, September 10 Nikki accidentally spills her perfume, Sassy Sasha, in French Class which covers the whole classroom, much to the chagrin of her French teacher, while fearing what would have happened if it killed him. Wednesday, September 11 Nikki falls for the first time in love with another student named Brandon Roberts. Thursday, September 12 It appears the new school may work out when Nikki befriends two other dorky girls, Chloe and Zoey. At first, their day in gym class does not go well for losing a game of Volleyball and having to take a shower, but they start to get along at lunch. Friday, September 13 MacKenzie hands Nikki what appears to be her invitation to her birthday party. But when she starts opening it, it turns out the invitation is for MacKenzie's friend, Jessica, and MacKenzie states she would never invite Nikki to her party. Saturday, September 14 Thanks to MacKenzie, Nikki is sulking about her life. Her dad tries to cheer her up with a cookout, but it doesn't go as planned. Monday, September 16 After failing a geometry test and taking enough abuse from MacKenzie, Nikki decides to enter the Avant-Garde Art Competition after all. Tuesday, September 17 MacKenzie trips Nikki at lunch, causing her food to land all over her. Worst yet, Brandon takes a picture of the fiasco. Wednesday, September 18 Nikki thinks Brandon is working with MacKenzie in humiliating her and will post the photo of her messy self in the school paper, but he helps her clean up after that. After he leaves, MacKenzie and her posse continue to make fun of Nikki. Thursday, September 19 Still taking place on what happened on Tuesday, Nikki hides in the janitor's closet to avoid more of MacKenzie's taunting. When someone knocks on the door, she fears MacKenzie found her, but it's really Chloe and Zoey. Nikki tells them what happened and they clean her up. Friday, September 20 When Nikki finds a pimple on her face, she plays sick to stay home by making her own fake vomit. It works like a charm. Saturday, September 21 Nikki needs to return a hearing aid to her tone-deaf neighbor, Mrs. Wallabanger. Monday, September 23 Mrs. Peach is taking six of her best LSA's to the NYC Public Library to attend National Library Week, and Zoey and Chloe really wanna go. Chloe suggests they get tattoos that inspire reading, and Zoey thinks it's a cool idea. But Nikki doesn't like it, and doesn't have the heart to tell them. Tuesday, September 24 Zoey and Chloe were not happy to find that their parents wouldn't let them get tattoos. Meanwhile, in gym class, they and Nikki need to perform a ballet routine. The only song left is Michael Jackson's Thriller, so they perform a Zombie Ballet. Unfortunately, their teacher gives them a "D" for not following the proper method. Zoey and Chloe then decide to run away Friday to live in the NYCPL's tunnels until National Library Week. What can Nikki do? Wednesday, September 25 Nikki has two nightmares about Zoey and Chloe: one where they are living in the sewers of NYC, and one where they attend her and Brandon's wedding with a few uninvited guests. Thursday, September 26 Brianna creates a hand puppet named Miss Penelope, which gets on Nikki's nerves. Fortunately, this gives Nikki an idea to keep Zoey and Chloe from running away. She tells them that she'll give them temporary tattoos. They agree and promise not to run away. Friday, September 27 Nikki and Brandon begin to bond a little bit. He sees her designs and believes that she will win the art competition while Nikki is not so sure. But she is happy about his comforting words. Chloe and Zoey tend to take notice. This is the first time Nikki experiences Roller Coaster Syndrome (RCS). Saturday, September 28 Nikki's mother offers her $10 to look after Brianna and see a movie with her since she has errands to run. Nikki agrees. Brianna gets scared of the fairy in the movie. After the movie, their father arrives in his extermination van, much to Nikki's horror. He takes the girls to his next extermination appointment and can't take them home until it's done, so they have to wait in the van until then. Brianna has to go to the bathroom. The lady of the house lets them use one, but the main floor bathrooms are all fumigated, so they use one of the bedrooms' attached bathroom. While Brianna takes care of her business, Nikki overhears a familiar voice and realizes she's in MacKenzie Hollister's house. She had canceled her party due to the infestation. Nikki hides in the bathroom with Brianna by telling her that the tooth fairy is coming. While MacKenzie rants about her party being ruined, Brianna runs out of the bathroom, runs into her, and kicks her in the shin. While MacKenzie's not looking, Nikki grabs Brianna and they get back to the van just as their dad has finished. Sunday, September 29 Nikki decides to enter a painting she made for her parents' anniversary in the art competition and recalls the time she and Brianna tried to cook them a gourmet dinner, which ended with disastrous results. Monday, September 30 MacKenzie arrives at school on a crutch (courtesy of Brianna) and makes up a story of how it happened. Meanwhile, Nikki gives Zoey and Chloe their tattoos. Soon, the buzz hits the rest of the school and the other students are interested. The girls decide that they'll give a tattoo to each student who turns a book into the library. Tuesday, October 1 Chloe has decided to double the price to two books per tattoo, much to Nikki and Zoey's annoyance. Wednesday, October 2 Nikki is starting to feel the pressure about her tattoo duty. And Chloe ups the price to three books. Thursday, October 3 Nikki believes that Zoey and Chloe care more about the tattoo operation than their friendship. Friday, October 4 Zoey and Chloe hang out with the CCPs and get invited to MacKenzie's rescheduled birthday party, and Nikki quits the tattoo operation as a result. Saturday, October 5 After having a crazy nightmare, Nikki gets a phone talk from her grandma and puts up with Brianna and Miss Penelope's antics. Monday, October 7 Nikki considers this the worst day of her life. She forgot to set her alarm and fell right asleep. Her mom took Brianna to school for a field trip she would go with her on. Nikki sees her dad about to leave for work and rapidly gets dressed and grabs her painting. She manages to catch a ride in his van and, with no one else looking, gets out. Unfortunately, MacKenzie is also there and discovers that she is the daughter of the school exterminator. To make matters worse, Nikki leaves her painting on the curb and it gets crushed by the van. Horrified, Nikki goes into a sorrow until Brandon comes by to comfort her. Despite his comforting words, Nikki becomes devastated when she finds out that someone vandalized her locker. Nikki decides to call her parents to pick her up. Tuesday, October 8 Nikki stays home with a cold and calls Zoey and Chloe at the library reference desk, trying to see if she can reconcile with them. But they're too busy helping Brandon out with something. Thinking they're doing something behind her back, Nikki decides that this is the last straw and plans to transfer out of WCD. Meanwhile, Brianna draws a Princess Sugar Plum mural on the wall to replace Nikki's destroyed painting, with a horrified reaction from her mom. Wednesday, October 9 Nikki is ready to transfer to another school and leave WCD forever. But first, she decides to check the art competition and see if MacKenzie won. To her surprise, the first place ribbon wasn't next to MacKenzie's display. She soon comes across the final display which had been labelled, to her surprise... The Student Body By Nikki Maxwell Nikki realizes this was what Chloe, Zoey and Brandon were working on. They took photos of the tattoos she made for the other students and turned it into an entry under her name. Nikki realizes that they are indeed her friends and tells her parents that she wants to stay at WCD. She meets up with Zoey and Chloe in the janitor's closet and reconcile over the tattoo business. MacKenzie did not take her loss very well. Thursday, October 10 Nikki is starting to ignore MacKenzie's put-downs. She, Zoey and Chloe decide to open up the Ink Exchange program again in November for just three days to reach 200 books, leading them to look forward to the big trip. Nikki is going to save the money she won for art camp next summer for her plans for the future. She even gets her own tattoo labeled "Champion" and gives one to Brandon in the form of a camera bug from her nightmare. Brandon interviews her for the school paper and takes some photos. Nikki feels she's gonna make it in WCD after all. Trivia * With a drawing Nikki references both "A nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th" franchies. * However, they are called "Midnight on Elk street", and "Friday the 14th". * This book has over three million copies in over twenty languages. Editions UK-Book-1.jpg|British version Catalan-1.jpg|Catalian version Czech1.jpg|Czech version French-1.jpg|French version hebrew-1.jpg|Hebrew version Dork5.png Dork-Diaries1234.jpg DorkDiaries123.jpg Dork0.jpg 1029390.jpeg Dork diaries version.jpg Hungarian version-.jpg|Hungarian version(Egy zizi naplója)|link=Hungarian version dork diaries greek edition.jpg|Greek version Polish1.jpg|Polish version dork-diaries-1-279x407.png|The super squee edition. chinaa.jpg|The Chinese Edition. Category:Books Category:Products Category:Book 1 Category:Dork Diaries Category:2009 Category:Nikki Maxwell Category:Nikki's Family Category:Mrs.Maxwell Category:Mr.Maxwell Category:Brandon Roberts Category:Mackenzie Hollister Category:Brianna Maxwell Category:Chloe Garcia Category:Zoey Franklin Category:Lisa Wang Category:Mrs.Wallabanger Category:Students of Westchester Country Day